In the design of liquid processing equipment it is usually critical to substantially alleviate liquid leakage. Such leakage can be detrimental to the equipment itself and can adversely affect the desired product. Also, the liquid may present a hazard to the equipment operator. A specific example of this is blood processing equipment such as centrifuges, blood separators, plasmapheresis apparatus and the like.
Centrifugal blood separators useful for separating blood into desired fractions and isolating specific coagulation factors are disclosed in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,378, U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,845, PCT/US95/15669, WO 97/20635, PCT/US95/15667 and PCT/US95/15675. These devices are useful for the precise, automated preparation of blood coagulation products useful, for example, as surgical sealants. It is important for the process, product and processor to avoid leakage of the blood or blood products. Also, when such processors are used to process autologous blood, i.e., to generate blood products from the patient's own blood, the blood is typically untreated and leakage needs to be minimized to protect the operators and caregivers using such equipment.